There are few incentives in our profession to ardently address inequality. The challenges of learning and teaching new and unfamiliar material and sensitively navigating the complexities of addressing issues like colonialism and intersectionality can seem perilous and thankless. Nonetheless, it is the right thing to do; our university will not become more equitable and inclusive without our making it so. This requires us to be open to changing, generous in our interpretation of each other’s actions and motivations, and resilient and attentive in the face of criticism.
Rather than congratulating ourselves for not being racist, sexist, ableist, cissexist, classist, or heterosexist, the lessons of social psychology suggest that we probably enact these biases whether we want to or not. Commitment to being anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, anti-cissexist, anti-classist, and anti-heterosexist entails that we are open to discovering ways in which we enact these prejudices so that we can figure out how to live in ways that better conform to our own values. In this light, failure and disorientation can be seen as moments of insight that make progress possible.